Syrian refugee family earns both admiration and respect
Recently, Manal and Abdel (their names have been changed) came over with their daughter, Bushra. Over takeout, Abdel told us about his recent promotion within his company, his fourth in a 20-month span. They told us of the family’s plans to rent a townhouse that is bigger than their current apartment, which will mean buying another car (“just one for about $1,000, just to move me around town”). And we marvelled at how Bushra’s English — and French — has improved.
A typical dinner, except that our guests have only been living in Canada for 22 months. They are refugees from Syria.
We met Manal, Abdel and Bushra when my parents told me about their church’s sponsorship of the family. We told friends about the five-year-old girl in this refugee family and quickly collected enough money to get her a tonne of warm clothes, a backpack, snowsuit and boots and puzzles. We delivered the haul to the church, received a warm thank you from church officials, and concluded that that was the end of our involvement.
But then we received a request: The family wanted to meet to thank us in person. We arranged a day and time to connect at Tim Hortons (no more quintessentially Canadian meeting place would do). When we met them, they had been in Ottawa for three weeks. Abdel told us that he had found a job after five days promoting the Canadian Tire credit card. And Manal was already volunteering to help settle other Syrian refugees in Ottawa. Both parents were eager to learn about getting a driver’s licence and whether the winter season would end promptly in March. Bushra knew no English and could only say, “Thank you.”
Over the following months, each time we met them our friends’ lives had improved. Abdel was promoted three times within his company. Manal recognized that she would be unlikely to get certification in her specialty, given the hindrances of being in a war-torn area, so she had very practically mapped out a plan to redo her master’s degree. She continued to volunteer helping settle other refugees. She supported a friend who came from Syrian and was lonely. And Bushra learned English incredibly quickly.
When we tell our Syrian friends that they are inspiring to us, they brush these sentiments off. They are proud that they live and work in Canada, pay taxes and contribute to the economy. I have heard negative and positive anecdotes about Syrians in Canada over the last two years. For me, Syrian refugees are community leaders and role models who strengthen Canada for all of us. Amanda Parriag, Ottawa